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Roslea St Patrick’s Day parade cancelled

St Patrick with Aine and Roisin Rooney leading the Roslea Parade at last year’s celebrations.

COMMUNITIES in Fermanagh’s smaller towns and villages are being urged to get more involved in helping organising St Patrick’s Day parades in future, after yet another event fell by the wayside this year.
After almost 20 very successful years, this St Patrick’s Day there will be no parade in Roslea. The simple reason for it is, those who had previously organised the popular event did not have the time to organise one this year.
One of the organisers told the Herald they hoped that the absence of a parade in the village this year may prompt more people to get involved in future.
“Unfortunately we had to pull the pin on it this year,” they said. “The way it worked out, very few people were doing all the work, and they have their own businesses to run as well.
“We had a brilliant parade, it was going since 1999 and it attracted people from all over the area. It took in the whole border region.
“Everyone wants to see it back, but no one wants to do the work. We are hoping it will be missed this year and others will want to take up the mantle.”
Stating there were many young families in the Roslea area, the organiser said if the organising committee was given an injection of fresh blood, it may mean a return of the parade in years to come.
The situation in Roslea mirrors that in nearby Newtownbutler, where there has been no parade for the past two years.
“It’s for the exact same reason that it happened here,” said one of the previous organisers in the village, when told of why the Roslea parade was not taking place this year. “It was a very good parade and there would be a desire to see it return.”
The good news is, the organiser said that due to this desire to bring the parade back meant that the chances were high there would be one next year, with the Newtownbutler Development Association planing on taking up the organising of the event.
“It’s too short notice to do it now for this year, but they are looking to do it next year,” said the former organiser, adding that because they didn’t get the parade organised this year the development association were planning on extending their usual Easter celebrations to include a “make your own bonnet” event on Easter Monday.